A new amiga machine for daily "work"

[lubaki]

Hi mates!

I am trying to design an amiga machine who can help me in my "hobby-job" project during 2022. I don't need an internet connection or demo reproduction. Basically I need an Amiga 1200 (is the machine that I have) with Kickstart 3.2 and Amiga OS 3.2 who can:

1.- Write some RTF text in English: Final Writer 97
2.- View folders with JPEG images. I am testing different "distros" but in WINuae I can't see any JPEG in MultiVIEW right now and this is a must.
3.- A good DTP: Pagestream 5
4.- Read PDF: NOPDF.
5.- A program where I can design stencils templates to do some graffitis like Banksy did in London
6.- A program for resize and print (Turboprint for Amiga) JPEGs and TIFFs.
7.- IT´S A MUST TO USE A USB FOR DATA EXCHANGE WITH MAC, LINUX AND WINDOWZ.

For screen I will use a 17" or 19" CRT screen and maybe is a must also to use a flickerfixer.

I need no more than 64 GB of hard drive so I will use a DOM SSD of this size.

I have a basic Amiga 1200 and I want to use an accelerator. I don't want to use a Vampire but if you guys think that I can only do this jobs with a Vampire I will go for it.

What kind of accelerator I need?
Do you think I can reach my goal with a vintage Amiga 1200?
Do you think I need something more?

Thanks in advance!

[Pyromania]

New version of PageStream5 shipping soonish it seems. I expect it no later than 2071 or maybe a wee bit later.

[Matt_H]

What you're proposing is definitely possible. You'll need at least an 030 accelerator, but the faster the better. Hardware-wise, you'll also need a RapidRoad for USB and definitely a flickerfixer if you're using an old VGA CRT. Alternatively, a 15KHz-compatible LCD panel will work with just a simple video adapter but the picture quality won't be as good as with a modern flickerfixer.

Software-wise, Multiview in 3.2 should be able to show JPEGs out-of-the-box. PicShow is another good viewer. You may also want to look at a photo library manager like ArtStudio, PictureManager, or PhotoFolio.

Also consider PageStream4 for DTP. Less modern, but more stable.

For creating stencil templates, there's no shortage of options. ArtEffect, Photogenics, FxPaint. Or consider a structured drawing program like DesignWorks or DrawStudio.

Your other software choices should work nicely.

[coldacid]

You might find this article interesting and related: https://thedorkweb.substack.com/p/pe...-amiga-in-2021

Written, if I'm not mistaken, by our very own stevelord.

[lubaki]

Thanks guys! Coldacid the article is incredible!
Matt H. Your word are very helpful. I test ArtStudio and it's an incredible app, perfect for me except for one reason: you can only put 20 pics in each album and I need to put more than 100 sometimes. I will use Pagestream as you mentioned, I prefer to be stable and less modern than a buggy app. I will test all the software in UAE first and after I will upgrade my A1200 with an accelerator (any suggestion?) and also a scan doubler to use with "modern" CRT.
I am looking also a good color laser printer for tests before sending my work to the lab. What do you use for laser printing?

[Locutus]

Do you need to see those JPEG's in more than 256 colours? How long are you wiling to wait for a single JPEG to render?

What resolution are you thinking about? I'd be afraid to open a JPEG from a modern digital camera on a 060 or Vampire

[stevelord]

Thanks for the kind words, @coldacid! It was indeed me behind that.

@lubaki, welcome to the world of Amiga productivity! Sorry for the long response but I thought you'd appreciate something in-depth from someone who has gone through some of your journey. I'd recommend you get something that works in UAE first. You can tweak settings and build something you're more comfortable with while saving up for the painful inevitable buying period that will follow

You can do everything you want with an A1200. You just need the patience and determination (and patience, oh my god the patience).

Once set up get a Raspberry Pi. It'll make life easier. Use the Amiga for creative work but leave the grunt work to the Pi. Why a separate Linux box? If you screw up it's not your main in trouble. If you're comfy with Linux using your main Linux box is fine too.

1.- Write some RTF text in English: Final Writer 97

Yes you can save RTF in Final Writer 97 but it might be slow to use. If you can write Markdown you can use anything from Redit to ProText. You can then transfer to the Pi via FTP, USB, PCMCIA or USB-Serial and pass it to a tool like Pandoc. I wrote the manual for a computer I built on that very computer this way.

2.- View folders with JPEG images. I am testing different "distros" but in WINuae I can't see any JPEG in MultiVIEW right now and this is a must.

If you have fast RAM and an 030 or higher consider OS 3.2 which includes JPEG datatypes. If you don't, convert between IFF and JPEG with adpro and IFF on the Amiga, it's quicker. For thumbnail icons you can use Eastern but be warned it needs a hefty Amiga to work well. I'd second @Matt_H's comment about using a photo manager instead.

Also think about the packages you want to use. Older versions are often faster. Features in newer versions are no good if you don't use them.

3.- A good DTP: Pagestream 5

The author hasn't seemed responsive to enquiries in the past. I'd be wary waiting to buy 5. Pagestream 4 is good enough but Pagestream 3 is fine and lighter. Also consider setting up ShapeShifter and System 7 to get access to tools like Quark XPress, Photoshop and Illustrator.

4.- Read PDF: NOPDF.

Modern PDFs are painful on Amiga. This is again where a Linux box helps. Poppler can convert PDFs to images that you can then scale down, convert to IFF and view on your Amiga with a decent viewer. Convert to TIFF the other way and load them into Preview on MacOS. You can then order your images graphically and save as a PDF.

5.- A program where I can design stencils templates to do some graffitis like Banksy did in London

I use DrawStudio for vector art and would probably go with TVPaint or PPaint for bitmap stencils. Again, ShapeShifter is a good opportunity to roll out Photoshop or Illustrator.

6.- A program for resize and print (Turboprint for Amiga) JPEGs and TIFFs.

I haven't used Turboprint, but it's better to print to PostScript using something like GhostScript - you should be able to view postscript files on the Amiga. Doug Compton did a great [ Show youtube player ]. Once you're happy with the postscript output you can move it over to the Pi and print from there via CUPS.

7.- IT´S A MUST TO USE A USB FOR DATA EXCHANGE WITH MAC, LINUX AND WINDOWZ.

NOT ON AN A1200 IT ISN'T!!!

The A1200 has a PCMCIA slot. You can spend serious cash on a RapidRoad USB adapter, burn it out and worry about power consumption if you like. I'd get a cheap CompactFlash PCMCIA adapter and put a 4Gb CompactFlash card in. Install Fat95 and the Amiga is ready. On the PC/Mac/Linux side, get a cheap CF-USB adapter and you're done.

If you'd prefer to use an SD or MicroSD card there are CompactFlash to Micro-SD cards that might work in series. I've seen CompactFlash to Micro-SD Wifi adapters knocking around. I haven't tried one, but that might let you transfer stuff to and from your Amiga over Wifi without an Amiga IP stack.

Ok, now on to the final quesitions:

What kind of accelerator I need?

This is why I said to test on UAE first. UAE lets you test different combinations of hardware, software, CPU, graphics card etc. before spending money. Anything is possible on a 68020 with 2mb of Chip RAM but it'll be nicer on an 060/50 with oodles of fast RAM. With a decent 030 card your options get better, and of course an 060/50 is always going to be the fastest choice. Avoid 040 A1200 cards unless you're towering up as they get hot. Don't bother with PPC.

Do you think I can reach my goal with a vintage Amiga 1200?

With compromises, sure. Start one task at a time and move onto the next when you're happy.

Do you think I need something more?

My biggest concern for you is working with large images. You can use screenmodes up to 1280x1024 but the higher the screen res, the slower it gets with more than a few colours on screen. See if you can work in AGA first because non-vampire RTG on an untowered A1200 is hard to pull off.

I have a CDTV in my office at work that's used for technical documentation, training material production and illustrations. That uses HamLab Plus, ProWrite (and ProText), Deluxe Paint III, Brilliance and Scala for Multimedia production. Anything is possible on any Amiga with patience.

[Jope]

Originally Posted by stevelord

If you have fast RAM and an 030 or higher consider OS 3.2 which includes JPEG datatypes. If you don't, convert between IFF and JPEG with adpro and IFF on the Amiga, it's quicker.

Why not just install a jpg datatype from Aminet if not running 3.2? It's tedious to do conversions when you can just open the image in multiview.

http://aminet.net/search?query=jpeg+datatype you even get to choose from several.

[amiman99]

I would recommend using an Amiga with Graphics Card support, so you can use higher screen resolutions with more colors.
The new upcoming A1200 Vampire card might work, or PiAmiga on other 68000 machines.

The 68030 50MHz that I have is fast, but not fast enough to display JPG images on screen. It may take few seconds to display the image. Any image that is bigger than your display resolution, will force you to scroll the image to see it in full.

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by Jope

Why not just install a jpg datatype from Aminet if not running 3.2? It's tedious to do conversions when you can just open the image in multiview.

http://aminet.net/search?query=jpeg+datatype you even get to choose from several.

Thanks for raising that. Sorry, I should've been clearer. What I meant was:

If you have If you have fast RAM and an 030 or higher consider OS 3.2 (in general). This includes JPEG Datatypes, so you don't have to bother finding a JPEG datatype.

If you don't have an 030 or higher with fast RAM, use tools like adpro to convert between IFF and JPG as processing IFF images will be quicker.

As an aside I would've thought for <030 without fast RAM 3.0/1 would be a better choice, but I don't know about 3.1.4. Any thoughts, Jope?

[Jope]

You're right that on demand jpg conversion is definitely slow on a less powerful Amiga. I wouldn't really consider doing most of the tasks in OP's post without a 40MHz 030 at least. Especially PDF rendering is slow even with an 060.

3.1.4 and 3.2 are quite ok on most HD equipped Amigas, but you really need as much RAM as you can easily fit. :-)